Plasticine Play With Aayush

One weekend Aayush came over to our house and the three of them settled to play with moon-dough. They set out to make a replica of a model from one of the books on plasticine modelling. Though they didn't have the exact material as required in the book , they decided to not only go with it but also remodeled whatever they had to suit the book's requirements..They started with full gusto and made a cute little cottage..They figured that to match the exact colors as the book they would need to color the moon-dough which in turn means that they would have to wet the moon-dough enough.  They did all that and painted quite a few new colors like white , red etc..the final result not only looked pretty but I was pleased with the fact they had made a totally new version of dough from what they already had.


But after all this serious hour of replication they decided it was enuff. It was time for the "real stuff"- the stuff that comes from one's brains and not from the books! They started to experiment. First they painted Aayush's plaster ..then made play-dough of numbers  impressions from a play-set, then took all the different colored play-dough and filled it in poster color containers..Which Chellu promptly put in the freezer.Its lying there...Soon some day my fridge is gonna have more "experimented products" than real food! ;))

Shreedhari's ( Kunju) First Legible Creation

Kunju had made her first legible creation a few weeks back. ALL BY HERSELF WITH NO HELP FROM ME.  I think this is a huge milestone indeed. She started out as a kid who was really not so interested in arts but slowly she too has started to show more & more interest. Maybe all the arts & crafts that's done at home thanks to her sister has sparked off some interest in her.

The above creations were made for a friend's birthday. She made a cut-out of Zoya calling it Zoya Rani with a  crown and a pocket. Its significant for me since she developed the idea  and executed it 100% by herself.

Looking forward to many more days of arts & crafts with the little one...:))

Pipe-Cleaner Jewellery

Chellu made some hand jewellery from pipe=cleaners today. I was busy chatting with a guest and I guess this was her way of dealing with boredom. I was quite impressed with the first one- she told me its her bracelet cum ring. Wow- don't the Muslim ladies wear something very similar during their weddings?

The third & fourth one from the top are also interesting in the sense that the rings are inter-connected. Wonder how something like that will actually look?

Hmm..As a child I was very passionate about drawing jewellery. I would copy-draw photos of our Gods and then with gr8 interest design the jewellery with the minutest details....

The Magic of Shared Energies

                                                       Glass-painting with the Rahates.


                                        Making life-size tree-cutouts of each other for story -telling

We have been meeting with Sanjyot & her boys for the past few months once or twice a week for doing activities together. In a country like India where HSing company is so rare one can get really lonely on some days. Though we do go out a lot or travel or meet up with a lot of people the lack of children during the daytime can sometimes get frustrating. So even to do some activities one does look forward to having some company. That's where the Rahate family fit in so well. Ram & Kabir and my girls get along very well. And many a days we have so much fun doing activities together or sharing our energies w.r.t academics.

Sanjyot has this knack of making the kids do traditional worksheets kind of stuff. Chellu will happily agree to dong maths with her while its such a fight with me. In fact the girls' interest in activity/ workbooks got revived becoz of the Rahates. Its really nice to have moms like Sanjyot who know which key goes for which lock..meaning how to slowly get the interest of the child in smnthg that he/she has been resisting for long. Maybe its the effect of doing things in a group too..Definitely we learn from seeing others.

I love meeting up with other moms for playdates or HSing activities. Looking forward to many more..

Shell Painting

                                          Middle one done by me while the rest by Chellu

Mono-coloring by Kunju. This is so typical of her when it comes to painting anything. She prefers one color usually black and will do layers on top of layers. 

Home or Jail?

Interesting representation of "A"

" A" for apple. Its interesting that she chose  to draw the apple along with the plant rather than just the fruit. When I asked her she said " Of course how can the apple be itself? without the plant"

"B" for Bums.

Our " feel free to paint on the walls" policy has always triggered off many artistic expressions. In fact  Chellu had learnt the alphabets by writing on the walls. There's something about the wall that's so attractive for kids. Maybe the vastness of it ...when we moved in our brand new home in Pune in 2009, we had allowed the kids to do what they want with the walls. And they had scribbled like crazy in no time. And then last year for Diwali we did a cheap Rs.6000 paint just to "feel" the newness of the house. But the inexpensiveness makes it so worth it cause u r not pulling out your hair over your kids' artistic pursuits. After watching them enjoy painting over the walls so much we have also made wall-wide black boards in 2 rooms. But interestingly they still prefer the wall and I bet once we near Diwali they will see to that every inch of the walls are covered with their artistic impressions!! No problems- we will do a cheap re- paint  & let them do it all over again.

The above photos are recent expressions. The first four are Chellu's attempts at teaching her sis the alphabets. The first 3 are the "A" with the third one specifically for A for apple - the green part is the plant . While the 4th painting is the "B"- B for bum. She later explained to me that she drew the bums on the side on purpose ..to make it obvious for Kunju to see & understand. 


The 5th painting is more like a collage and interestingly she chose to do it around the switch-board. That's a ncie way of highlighting the switch board I think. The 6th painting is the work of many months. It started out as a girl going to a wedding with flowers in her hand. Then after a few days she added "rain" to it by splashing blue paint with a tooth-brush. And then it became something else..will have to catch up with her for the latest version. I thought this was such an innovative way of painting..adding layers over time. 


Most homes are so S"trict" about not letting the kids do anything with the wall. They call this discipline or neatness etc..But I sincerely feel that this is another way of making the rule of " Dad & mom alone live in this house & have the right to decide to do whatever when it comes to the house". Like no jumping on the sofas, no jumping on the bed, no scribbling, no water-play , no riding bikes in the house, no coming in the kitchen, no opening the fridge. All of this and much more is allowed in our house. Why not? If the kids can't be allowed to be themselves in their own homes, where else can they be? If they can''t  let off their excess energy in their own homes where else can they do it? Are our homes a jail for our kids in our excessive drive to keep it well-organized? What will guests think? WHO CARES? Do we live in our homes for ourselves or for others? What about discipline? To be frank I think we give up too much on the altar of DISCIPLINE. Too much of our kids' childhood. 

But this is a recent development of living in urban homes. The rural home is so much more child=friendly. They have lotsa space to run around,  in & out all the time..the kitchen is child-friendly. The cooking happens ON THE FLOOR which lets the child observe & participate in cooking. Just the fact that our urban kids don't have all that free space to run @ in itself means they have very little space to let off their energy, to express themselves. A dear  Hsing friend of mine Hema gave a very interesting perspective when I was concerned with Chellu's passion with make-up last year - If the kid was living in a village or near a forest will they not be crushing leaves & all sorts of things and then smearing it on themselves or the floor or on the well or on the barks or somewhere? Wouldn't they indulge in body-painting?. Make-up is an attempt to replicate that with whatever resources our urban kids have. It doesn't have to mean anything more than that. Hema's interesting perspective gave me a lot of peace of mind. We were designed to live with nature , to learn from Her. But in urban homes since this is lacking a 100% we have to understand that everything that the kids do is trying to replace that absence. Whether painting on the walls or playing with water in the bathroom or with mud in the terrace. 


 Its so unfair. Don't our children have an equal say in what can be done in the house? I would say a "BIG YES". So nothing in our house is forbidden. And out of this freedom has come out some of the most artistic, innovative, fun-filled pursuits!! :))

DORA STORY BOOK- BY SHREEDHARI

ONE DAY DORA HAD A BABY SISTER. SHE CAN SEE IN THE BABY SISTER IS OPENING THE EYES. MOMMY SHE IS CRYING ..THE BABY SISTER IS CRYING. SO MOM PICKED UP THE BABY SISTER. PAPA IS RINGING THE BELL FAST..OPEN THE DOOR. MOM OPENED THE DOOR. PUP HAS COME. MY BABY SISTER IS WAKING UP AND CRYING. IM GOING TO THE BATHROOM AND IM TIP-TOEING. SO DORA HAD A BABY SISTER , SO SHE WAKE UP AND CRYING SAYING " SISTER , SISTER". SO SISTER PICK UP THE BABY SISTER. " MOM NODDY STICKER BOOK SHE IS TEARING MOM. MY BABY SISTER IS TEARING MOM. MOM LIZARD IS COMING TO THE DOOR. SHUT THE BALCONY'S DOOR, SHUT THAT MOM. IT IS BITING ME MOM. SO MY BABY SISTER IS CRYING VERY VERY VERY MUCH. BYE BYE.

BOOTS MOM BOOTS BOOTS. WHAT DORA ? IM HERE IN THE TREE.IM FARMING IN TE GARDEN, YOU WANT TO FARM WITH PUP? PUP WENT TO THE SHOP-KEEPER AND BUY THE ICE-CREAM FOR DORA AND BOOTS. IM HURT IM HURT, HELLO HELLO. WHAT BOOTS? I GOT HURT. WHAT HAPPENED? IM PUTTING TURMERIC. OKAY DORA. BYE BYE. SO THE PUP IS SLEEPING, IM SLEEPING, MAMA IS SLEEPING,BABY IS SLEEPING,  BOOTS IS SLEEPING. IT IS NIGHT. BYE BYE. GOOD- NIGHT.

THE END.